X censors hundreds of accounts supporting Palestinian resistance
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X has thus far responded to over 80 takedown requests from the EU, and no notifications regarding illegal content have been received from Europol.
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A view of a laptop showing the Twitter sign-in page displaying the new logo, in Belgrade, Serbia, on July 24, 2023. (AP)
X platform's Chief Executive Officer, Linda Yaccarino, confirmed on Thursday that they have removed hundreds of accounts supporting Hamas and have also removed or labeled thousands of pieces of content since the commencement of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
This came as a response to EU industry chief Thierry Breton's 24 ultimatum handed to X owner Elon Musk to address the spread of disinformation on X to comply with the new EU online content policies, as Breton claimed to have indications that X was disseminating illegal content and fake news in the European Union.
According to Yaccarino, X redistributed resources and reshaped internal teams to address the situation, adding that X established a leadership group to assess the situation shortly after it began.
Posted on X, Yaccarino said to Breton: "We wish to reiterate that we welcome further engagement with you and your team, including a meeting, to address any specific questions and look forward to receiving further specifics to which we can respond".
Read next: Meta temporarily suspends Al Mayadeen English on Instagram
As per the letter, X has thus far responded to over 80 takedown requests from the EU, and no notifications regarding illegal content have been received from Europol.
On Wednesday, Breton granted the platform a 24-hour window to report the actions taken to curb the dissemination of disinformation.
The Facebook platform has imposed bans on sharing any posts containing the hashtag #OperationAlAqsaFlood and has also prohibited posts containing content related to Palestine.
Consequently, users are unable to share their posts with this hashtag during the ongoing Operation Al-Aqsa Flood by the Palestinian resistance and the continued Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, now entering its sixth consecutive day.
#Palestinian users were deprived of their freedom of expression during the 2-week war on #Gaza by "Israel" last year, by having their content blocked on Facebook and penalizing Arabic-speaking users more heavily than those who spoke Hebrew. pic.twitter.com/DZC2NLV6sW
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) September 26, 2022
Meta has been suspending accounts as well like that of Al Mayadeen English on Instagram and RedStream.
@Instagram temporarily suspended @AlMayadenEnglish account on #Instagram to censor its reporting on what is happening in #Palestine. The account was restored after filing an appeal.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) October 9, 2023
Our account was suspended with no prior notice, nor were we informed of the true reason for the… pic.twitter.com/bFgBWpmy51
"Israel" and its supporters have sought on numerous occasions to remove opposing voices from the airwaves or the internet.
Former Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked boasted that she worked closely with Facebook to censor Palestinian voices, with the Silicon Valley company agreeing to remove around 95% of the information she requested.
BREAKING: They BANNED @propandco page for speaking out for Palestine! Please share and tag @meta and @instagram and demand they stop censoring pro-Palestine voices!
— Hassan Shibly (@HassanShibly) October 12, 2023
Ahmad’s videos reached over 2,000,000 views and was dismantling the propaganda used to justify crimes against Gaza pic.twitter.com/wR4dKtbSw0
X censoring content may not completely come as a surprise, especially after a report released in June by MintPress found that, after conducting an analysis of employment and recruitment websites, X has hired “an alarming number” of ex-FBI agents and other former “feds and spies.”
However, MintPress noted that Twitter is not the only social media platform that is “cultivating such an intimate relationship with the FBI and other groups belonging to the secret state.”
